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Google's biggest show of the year, I/O 2018, will start up in just a few days. In addition to tons of developer talks, the show typically serves as a coming-out party for a bevy of Google announcements.

I/O hasn't necessarily been your typical tech announcement event where months of pre-leaks reveal 90 percent of what will happen. But while we can't know what's coming for certain—everyone remembers those skydivers wearing augmented reality glasses, right?—we can go into this year's show with a few informed predictions. Based on our analysis of evidence, past news, and Google's usual release schedules, here's what we're expecting at Google I/O 2018.

Android P Developer Preview 2

This first one is easy. Every year Google releases a new developer preview of Android at I/O, and Google's own schedule says we'll get a new developer preview in "May," the same month as Google I/O. A new preview of Android P is pretty much a lock. The real question is "What do we expect in the second Android P Preview?"

More Material Design 2

The first Android P preview arrived in March with a big UI overhaul. There's an all-new notification panel and quick settings, a new main settings screen, and lots of redesigned system UI components like the volume interface, text selection, animations, and dialog boxes. In the past few months we've also seen a whirlwind of UI changes from Google in other products, with a new design style appearing in Gmail.com, Chrome in its Desktop, mobile, and OS varieties, the Google account interface, Google Pay, the Android Developers site, and the new Google Tasks app.

Here are a few highlights from the first Android P developer preview. Here's the new notification panel.

Expanded quick settings. If you have more buttons than can fit on the screen, there will be vertical scrolling instead of pagination.

Ron Amadeo

The new system settings! They're colorful, now, but the layout is mostly the same.

Android P gets a new volume slider.

The new text magnifier.

Here's the testing notch you can enable in developer settings. See that cut-off icon on the right of the notch? Keep an eye on it.

All of these redesigns could loosely fit under the same overarching design style, which feels like an evolution of Google's current "Material Design" guidelines. The new design doesn't have an official name, but internally at Google it has been called "Material Design 2" and "Material Design Refresh." Whatever Material Design 2 ends up being called, at I/O we expect Google to formalize the new design style, publish design documents, and have several developer sessions covering all the new changes.

Further Reading

Google likes to keep the I/O schedule vague before the keynote, but there are a few sessions that suggest Google will talk a lot about Material Design 2. One session is titled "How to incorporate what's new with Material Design in your code base." Another session will cover "how UX researchers helped test, refine, and evolve the latest Material Design guidance." I'm going to interpret mentions of "what's new" and "evolution" as hints of Material Design 2 news.

In Android P Preview 1, there was a pretty clear clash between newly redesigned screens and old interfaces that haven't been touched yet. In Preview 2, hopefully we'll see more parts of Android redesigned so we have something approaching a cohesive OS.

Gesture navigation

Android borrows a lot from iOS in this round of updates. In addition to iPhone X-style notch support, Android is apparently getting gesture support. This feature was seemingly leaked by Google itself, which accidentally posted a picture to the official Android Developer blog showing a navigation bar we haven't seen before. The home button was a pill shape instead of a circle, the back button used an older design, and the recent apps button was missing. This was Android's in-development gesture UI.

There's a ton we don't know about gesture navigation, and it's clearly still in development from the screenshot. While it seems inevitable it will come to Android, we can't guarantee it will be ready in time for Android P Preview 2. It certainly seems like a major change for Google, and it's something the company may want to release in beta so people can wrap their heads around it and offer feedback.

Google Assistant "Slices"

The first Android P Developer Preview contained a new "Slices" API, and we're still not sure exactly what it will do. The Android P developer docs say a slice is "a piece of app content and actions that can be surfaced outside of the app," but that's pretty vague.

Sebastiano Poggi from the app development house Novoda has been diving into the Slices API since release, and he thinks the most obvious use for slices is for apps to display their own content inside the Google Assistant search results. The UI with Slice renders currently looks very unfinished, but the layout is similar to a Google Assistant reply. Poggi has built a whole Slices demo app showing how a Google Assistant interface might work. One app would be a primary "Slice Host" (a Slices-aware version of the Google Assistant) and many other apps would be "Slice Providers" and offer up information to display inside the host app. So imagine asking the Google Assistant (the Slice host app) for Infinity War movie times, and instead of displaying search result info, users with the Fandango app installed (a Slice provider) could provide custom UI for the Google Assistant that would let users quickly buy a movie ticket.

Since Google will need app developers to build a Slice capability into their apps for this to work, the company needs to come clean about what the Slices API is and how developers should use it. Google's largest developer show seems like a good place to do just that. Again, the I/O schedule is very vague before the keynote, but the talk "Integrate your Android apps with the Google Assistant" might have something to do with Slices.

When Google ended support for the Nexus Player this March, it suddenly found itself without a first-party device for Android TV. This is very unhealthy for the Android TV developer ecosystem, since, as usual with Android, third-party OEMs take their sweet time when updating any device. If Google released a new version of Android TV today, exactly zero people would have access to it on real hardware. Until Google fixes Android's update situation, any good Android form factor needs a Google-made developer device with day-one updates.

For Android TV, it seems like a new developer device is coming in a Chromecast-like dongle form factor. A Google-branded dongle with remote showed up at the FCC in April, which would make it a prime candidate for a Google I/O launch. The dongle has similar hardware to the $69 2017 Amazon Fire TV, which would make for a good developer freebie for those who attend the show. Android TV seems to be primarily focusing on a form factor that is built right into televisions, but there are also set-top boxes like the Nvidia Shield and Xiaomi Mi Box. There's really nothing in a dongle form factor for Android TV, though. A souped-up Chromecast-style device with the full Android TV interface on it would be great for wall-mounted televisions and people who don't want to buy a whole new TV.

Nothing in the I/O schedule shouts "We're making new Android TV hardware!" but Google's TV OS has not been forgotten at I/O. There's a "What’s new with Android TV" session that could end with a hardware freebie being given out.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

You forgot to mention about the 'Chrome OS getting Linux App support' will be most likely announced in Google I/O 2018. The Linux Crostini VM is already working on Pixelbook and I think Google will officially unveil it in I/O'18.

I know what you're thinking—Android is not known as a particularly secure OS, because Android devices are never updated, either. This is true of devices from Samsung, LG, and other third-parties, but devices from Google, which are regularly updated directly by Google, do not have these security problems.

I mean, sure, if you don't mind throwing your devices away every three years and buying new ones.

- a bottom-oriented UI. With all these extra-narrow, extra-long phones, reaching the top of the screen requires excruciating hand gymnastics. Just put the input stuff (notifications, menus...) at the bottom already !

- the possibility to lock down the home screen. I'm tired of paying Nova Launcher $4 for each and every newbie/oldie that can't be trusted not to unintentionally mess up their homepage.

- please make ctrl+mousewheel zoom in and out.

They can announce highfalutin stuff all they like. What'd make my life better every day is those.

...working to combine YouTube's music offering with Google Play Music. The resulting service would be called "YouTube Remix," and reportedly it would lead to the death of Google Play Music. ... Google is also planning another podcast service, one that might replace the dying Google Play Music app with a standalone podcast app.

So we lose one app and gain another, meaning we have net zero change. Are we sure this is Google? It would feel more correct if they were spinning up a new app / service for all 3 that will be abandoned in 6 months.

An Android TV dongle sounds great! I've really enjoyed the Chromecast, but always thought a stand alone device with a remote would be better. Glad to see they've been listening!

I'm actually deeply souring on my Chromecasts. I have several TV ones and several audios, but Google's ridiculous walled garden approach to casting really pisses me off and honestly seems like a blatant antitrust violation. At first I was just irritated that I couldn't cast from the Plex, Spotify, or Netflix apps on my Windows laptop, but now that I'm using Firefox as my daily browser on desktop and mobile I can't cast anything from either. I'm constantly copying and pasting links and waiting for Chrome to open just so I can cast the exact same content. And the biggest piss off about it is that Google developed the open sourced DIAL protocol that Netflix and Spotify still use perfectly finely for casting, then abandoned it to shut everyone else out and avoid fair competition.

I refuse to buy another Chromecast or Android TV device until they open up their casting protocols. I really wish American antitrust regulators would do their damned jobs and force them too as well.

I'd love to see Google develop some sort of RSS/Blog aggregation solution that would operate similar to a regular RSS app, but where I would have access to all of my feeds from any connected device such as a computer or phone.

I hear rumblings that Google Voice is ready to ditch XMPP completely and create an entirely new SIP-based backend, for supporting Obihai (and related) devices natively. This would be big news, and worthy of a Google I/O mention.

I'm actually surprised Project Fi has held on as long as it has given Google rarely talks about it and how short the organizational attention span has been.

Also: Still no new 7" tablet that actually gets updates? Not that I was expecting one but it would be nice.

I know that I'm just a case study of 1, but I've been on Fi since the beginning and it's fantastic. I love it but have also wondered about its longevity due to the attention span you mentioned. Hoping it's doing well enough for Google that they continue it...like, maybe it's easy enough to maintain because it's built on established tech so it just works like a bit of a cash cow for them.

I'm actually surprised Project Fi has held on as long as it has given Google rarely talks about it and how short the organizational attention span has been.

Also: Still no new 7" tablet that actually gets updates? Not that I was expecting one but it would be nice.

Shhhhh...don't tell Google. I keep hoping that they've just kind of forgotten that they have Project Fi so I can keep my cheap, almost no-data cost phone life. Every headline I see that is "Google ending..." or "Google killing..." makes me panic a little bit that I'll have to migrate away from Fi.

"The Android P developer docs say a slice is "a piece of app content and actions that can be surfaced outside of the app," but that's pretty vague."

Oh boy! The return of OpenDoc/ActiveX...Want to start laying bets on how many security exploits this will surface...?

I actually think something like this has a place in mobile, and I expect Apple to do something like this at some point (you could say they've already laid all the groundwork in Spotlight and similar APIs over the past few years).

The BIG difference is that Apple will do this via XPC providing no way for malicious content to do anything more than what the API allows. (Or at least, that's the theory, and I'm unaware of any problems with XPC so far).Android, as far as I know, has nothing like XPC and still implements "plugins" like this via direct app embedding ala 1980s, and that's where it all goes south. Of course this COULD also be Google's introduction to the world of their version of XPC. (To be followed by massive immediate whining that the constraints something like XPC places on "app freedom" are unbearable...)

I'm actually surprised Project Fi has held on as long as it has given Google rarely talks about it and how short the organizational attention span has been.

Also: Still no new 7" tablet that actually gets updates? Not that I was expecting one but it would be nice.

I know that I'm just a case study of 1, but I've been on Fi since the beginning and it's fantastic. I love it but have also wondered about its longevity due to the attention span you mentioned. Hoping it's doing well enough for Google that they continue it...like, maybe it's easy enough to maintain because it's built on established tech so it just works like a bit of a cash cow for them.

I'd be ok with it just endlessly trudging on in it's current state. I've been using it since their invite only period. The service has been incredibly good to me as I used to travel internationally 8+ months a year and they're very responsive to any encountered issues including the 5X bootlooping problem.

I don't think I've ever seen stated earnings from Project Fi. It might be worth a dive into the investor documents to find out.

An Android TV dongle sounds great! I've really enjoyed the Chromecast, but always thought a stand alone device with a remote would be better. Glad to see they've been listening!

Tbh, I'm a remote hater. I want my world controled with my phone. I wouldn't mind remote support but I want phone support too for a Dongle. It's just to irritating having more than one remote... I feel like I live in the 90's. Basically I want a Chromecast/AndroidTV combo. It would make it so much easier, if they were on well done device with phone and remote support.

You know what, I advise you do what I'm going to do (and of course fail to do).

Don't watch Google i/o.Don't read up any articles about it.Maybe watch some focused after sessions though; those are good.

Why?

Because literally, the past two years just about every fucking thing they announced doesn't even make it to you, the end user, until 9 to 11 months later! - Google Lens, the stupid camera, new features in their core apps, hell, getting features to anyone other than Pixel users. Wait, that's a best case scenario - probably half of it doesn't even come true and is a big disappointment.

An Android TV dongle sounds great! I've really enjoyed the Chromecast, but always thought a stand alone device with a remote would be better. Glad to see they've been listening!

Tbh, I'm a remote hater. I want my world controled with my phone. I wouldn't mind remote support but I want phone support too for a Dongle. It's just to irritating having more than one remote... I feel like I live in the 90's. Basically I want a Chromecast/AndroidTV combo. It would make it so much easier, if they were on well done device with phone and remote support.

I'd love to see Google develop some sort of RSS/Blog aggregation solution that would operate similar to a regular RSS app, but where I would have access to all of my feeds from any connected device such as a computer or phone.

I'm not sure if you're serious or just trying to twist the knife a little deeper into my side.

You know what, I advise you do what I'm going to do (and of course fail to do).

Don't watch Google i/o.Don't read up any articles about it.Maybe watch some focused after sessions though; those are good.

Why?

Because literally, the past two years just about every fucking thing they announced doesn't even make it to you, the end user, until 9 to 11 months later! - Google Lens, the stupid camera, new features in their core apps, hell, getting features to anyone other than Pixel users. Wait, that's a best case scenario - probably half of it doesn't even come true and is a big disappointment.

So, wait a year. Then watch it.

To be fair, the stuff announced at I/O isn't aimed at the regular consumer. Before you and I can actually use some whizbang new feature, developers need to play with it and integrate it into their service. Before that, the developer needs to know the feature exists and what it's intended for.

Google I/O, Microsoft Build and Apple's WWDC are that last piece, aimed at developers.

Nothing in this article about the major ChromeOS features brewing? Full container support with native file and launcher integration for installing linux (dev) applications while maintaining verified boot mode...

I think this will be talked about as it would seem that once this is in place (and with all the HUGE enhancements to multi-monitor setups; hot keys and auto window position saving across displays...) that this may be the go-to Google Dev platform...

You know what, I advise you do what I'm going to do (and of course fail to do).

Don't watch Google i/o.Don't read up any articles about it.Maybe watch some focused after sessions though; those are good.

Why?

Because literally, the past two years just about every fucking thing they announced doesn't even make it to you, the end user, until 9 to 11 months later! - Google Lens, the stupid camera, new features in their core apps, hell, getting features to anyone other than Pixel users. Wait, that's a best case scenario - probably half of it doesn't even come true and is a big disappointment.

So, wait a year. Then watch it.

To be fair, the stuff announced at I/O isn't aimed at the regular consumer. Before you and I can actually use some whizbang new feature, developers need to play with it and integrate it into their service. Before that, the developer needs to know the feature exists and what it's intended for.

Google I/O, Microsoft Build and Apple's WWDC are that last piece, aimed at developers.

You mean to tell me that Google couldn't give me the lens feature until a few weeks ago because, developers?

Look man, I'm just being real here. If you are going to demo a new feature, don't wait until almost next may to give it to me.

"With Android Things, your average Android IoT device should be much more secure than your average Android phone, because Google is taking a more Windows-like approach to device updates. Android Things device makers are not allowed to modify the underlying Android OS, allowing updates to come directly from Google"

shakes out in practice:

It has worked pretty well for ChromeOS; but that only targets a very limited selection of devices(mostly x86 with Intel GPU; some ARM Exynos and RockChip); so there isn't a whole lot of reason for the vendor to monkey with the OS.

Phone and embedded hardware are...less homogeneous. Often a lot less.

Even that especially Microsoft-like company, Microsoft, made the substantial concession of providing much of WinCE in source form(not under an open license; but they realized that most things WinCE was designed for were going to be ports; and that binary-only wasn't going to cut it).

Given the fragmented disaster that is Linux on assorted embedded junk with broken BSPs, I'm not sure how much "Don't mess with the OS" Google will be able to impose. It'd be great if they leaned on people to stop screwing around and head for mainline kernel support or leave; but that seems unlikely to happen. If they don't do that, though, we'll probably have 2.6 and early 3.x forks still creeping around a decade from now.